Plasma Driven Catalyst System for Disinfection and Purification of Gases

Abstract

The present invention relates to a novel plasma driven catalyst apparatus for disinfecting and purifying air. The apparatus has a synergistically favorable effect from plasma and catalyst on high disinfecting and purifying efficiency and efficacy, low by-product formation, and low energy consumption. The plasma combined with catalyst enhances the production of new active species, increases the oxidizing power of the plasma discharge, as well as activate the catalyst that additionally contributes towards the disinfection and purification process and the elimination of toxic by-products.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION[0001]Pursuant to 35 U.S.C. §119(e), this is a non-provisional patent application which claims benefit from U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No. 61 / 959,252 filed Aug. 19, 2013, and the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.COPYRIGHT NOTICE[0002]A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material, which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0003]The present invention relates to the use of plasma driven catalyst (PDC) technology for disinfecting, cleaning and purifying air. More particularly, the present invention provides air purification apparatuses and systems with plasma driven catalyst technology for indoor air quality improvemen...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The present invention provides a plasma driven catalyst apparatus that uses enhanced plasma technology based on dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma integrated with a TiO2-based catalyst to remove air pollutants and improve indoor air quality. The apparatus can be operated at atmospheric pressure conditions and is capable of eliminating a wide range of pollutants like NOx, SO2, H2S, formaldehyde, NH3, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), organic odors, and airborne bacteria and virus. The combination of plasma with catalyst synergizes the disinfection and purification process and minimizes the emission of toxic by-products. The new technology can be easily scaled up from laboratory conditions to large industrial installations.

Problems solved by technology

These ionized components can deeply degrade the VOCs and other air pollutants into non-harmful products like CO2 and H2O.

However DBD plasam generates ozone and other toxic by-products during the disinfection and purificatoin process.

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